[2] The daughter of Charles Lightfoot, a schoolteacher, and Mary Graham, she was born in Yangery, County of Villiers, Victoria.

Lightfoot moved to Castlecrag in 1924 with the Griffins, working in the Sydney office and also serving as companion and cook for Marion.

She also trained briefly with Daphne Deane at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Sonia Revid, a student of Mary Wigman.

She then left her partnership with Burlakov and returned to India to study Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dance, living in Kerala and Tamil Nadu for the next five years.

[5] In 1997, dancer and choreographer Tara Rajkumar created a dance with dialogue called Temple dreaming in memory of Lightfoot which was shown in Melbourne and Delhi.

Vallathol Narayana Menon, the founder of Kerala Kalamandalam, called Lightfoot the "Australian mother of Kathakali".

[8] Her contribution to Australia's interaction with Asian culture is documented and preserved through the Louise Lightfoot Collection at Monash University.